Number Twenty Three
by temporaryinsanity91
Summary: The new head of WWEE makes an incriminating and gruesome discovery. Join him as he turns the World Wide Evil Empire into the world's last hope. T for language, strong situations, violence. rating subject to change.
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter 1**_

* * *

"Move," he hissed, directing his men toward the stairs once the last guard was laying prone on the ground, unconscious.

He followed them down. This place was eerie. It was a sub-basement level, where he knew from his hackers was a very important genetics investigation being conducted by...

Global Justice. The home of all things heinous and malicious. Under the guise of genuine do-gooders, law enforcers, and peace keepers, GJ orchestrated projects that could make the worst villain cringe. And they had ruined his life. And he was determined to sabotage this project if it killed him.

So down he went, through the dark hallway, silently directing his men to search one room or the other, one hallway or another, until they reached the last corridor.

This one was well lit. the cement and steel walls were stark white, as was the floor. The ceiling glowed with fluorescent white lights that made it look more like a creepy hospital corridor.

There were glass observation windows spaced evenly down the hallway, ten total. He glanced into the first four, but they were empty. The fifth one made him misstep as he did a double take. There was a man, completely naked, inside the room. It was also stark white. As was the small cot in the corner. Through the glass he could see the locked door on the other side of the room.

"You two. And you. Find those doors," he hissed at three of his men. "Let those people _out!_ Bring them back to HQ, get them food and clothes._ Now!_"

The men immediately hustled back down the hall. Satisfied that his men were doing as they were told, he continued down the short corridor to the glass doors at the end. Pushing them open, he visibly flinched.

People. A woman, about thirty. Strapped to a table for some sort of experiment. A girl... about his age. Bright red hair and emerald eyes. She was tiny. And she was naked, and he could count her ribs. He knew immediately that this one was special. She was the culmination of all their experiments. And she was connected to wires and tubes everywhere. He carefully removed each one, and she sagged into his arms. If she weighed seventy pounds, it was a lot, he realized. They kept her weak.

He wondered why.

He quickly disarmed whatever they were doing to the other lady. Sticking a USB into one of the computers in the room, he typed a series of commands. Instantly there was a red siren and an alarm that made the weak girl cover her ears.

He'd planted a virus in the system, wiping its memory and setting off some sort of self-destruct. The virus also transferred all the files into his USB, for him to review later.

The tiny girl cowered in his arms as he fled the space. His men, thankfully, were right behind him, along with the other victims of whatever the _fuck_ that sick thing was.

They were safely away from the building before it exploded, and they watched it burn until nightfall. Then they silently took the cold, naked people to a private aircraft and flew to an unknown location.

**-23-**

The red-haired girl was sleeping in his bed, currently. He had doctors on staff who had seen to all of the people. They were all malnourished, but the redhead, he wasn't surprised to find out, was near death. They put her on intravenous nutrient drip. She'd eyed them all warily, and watching her struggle against them pitifully as they setup her IV had stirred emotions in him that he hadn't felt in a long time.

They'd given her a sedative, and he figured that instead of leaving her in the infirmary, he'd have her set up in his room. He found her a pair of old shorts and an old tee to wear, and she was now fully dressed and resting.

The others were being slowly nursed back to health. Their conditions were awful. Some of them had the vocabulary of a three year old. Others were fully mentally competent, but weak. They'd found fifteen total. The horrifying part was that there'd been forty rooms. Were there more?

The first man he'd seen, looked to be in his mid twenties, was diligently working on some sort of puzzle while the doctors looked on. He sat next to him, quietly, watching him struggle to find a piece. Scanning the pieces, he found the one that fit and offered it to him. "What's your name?"

Dark, vacant eyes met his light brown ones. "Name?"

"Yes. Like me, my name is Ron. Their names are Dr. Doherty, Dr. Johnson, and Dr. Freeman."

"Oh." He turned back to his puzzle. "I guess I'm number fourteen."

"Number Fourteen?" He echoed faintly.

The man nodded.

"Do you know the names of the others?"

"Thirteen. Ten. Eighteen. Twenty One. Five. Twenty Three. Eleven. Seven, Eight, Twelve. Twenty Four died. Fifteen. Two. Six. Nine. Sixteen. Twenty Two."

"Can you show me them?" he showed the man a series of pictures of the people they rescued. _Her _picture haunted him.

He pointed them out in turn. The woman in the lab was number seven. The little boy hiding in the corner of his room when his men found him, he was twenty-two. Number ten was a girl with curly dark hair that couldn't be older than thirteen. He hadn't gone through the files yet, so he didn't know their exact ages.

"What about her?" he asked, pointing to Red, as he'd started referring to her in his head.

The man scowled. "Number Twenty Three. I _hate_ her."

"Why?" he asked, bewildered.

"Because they had number Twenty Three. They didn't need us any more. They were going to put us in the room."

"The room?"

"The room where you go to die. Twenty Four went there and never came back. Same with Twenty Seven."

Dear God, how many of these people were there?

"Do you know what was in the room?"

"I don't know. I've never been in there. But a lot of us... went to the room. And none came back. Ever."

"Do you know why people got sent to the room?"

"Well... Twenty Seven... they said he was faulty. I thought he was normal. He yelled a lot, but he couldn't speak very well. But I liked him. He wasn't bad. Just loud, and kind of dumb."

So then... the genetic experiments that went wrong got _terminated?!_ This was insane!

"How many have been sent to the room?" He asked numbly, afraid to know the answer.

"Thirty eight."

He felt the bile rise in his throat. He needed to...

"Just go, Stoppable," Dr. Freeman said quietly.

He sprinted past them to the area of his... _building_... where he, some of his staff, and the rest of the experiment people were going to live. He shifted his weight impatiently in the elevator, until it dinged that he'd successfully reached the sixth floor. It was his floor. And Red was on it. In his bed.

More incomprehensible emotions.

He stepped into his bathroom, wondering what to do. He finally grabbed a towel and turned on the shower. Nothing could calm his mind and body and help him think like the steamy recesses of the shower.

He was only twenty-one years old, and he'd seen more evil in his life than any elderly person. He escaped from prison after his family was accused of a supposed crime, at the tender age of fifteen. His family did not survive the escape attempt.

He'd gone underground immediately. His friend, Wade, who was only ten at the time, was also a target of Global Justice because of his uncanny ability to stick his computer nose in files where it didn't belong, and decided to run away with Ron.

Wade now ran the division of his... _company_... that had to do with hacking, software engineering, etc. anything that had to do with computers and equipment, he could do.

They cooly and expressionlessly schemed and planned until they came up with the perfect plan to destroy and expose Global Justice. They found that this organization, WWEE, had been trying to do the same for years. However, their leader had plans for world domination, not just the destruction of GJ, so Mr. Gemini, as he called himself, had to be eliminated. And he was.

Now, WWEE belonged to him, and he decided not to have the majority of them locked up in some lair. Only his specialists stayed there with him. The rest of his agents were scattered all over the world, hiding in plain sight. As bankers, construction workers, cooks, cashiers, teachers, scientists, psychologists... federal agents... and, Global Justice agents.

Having eyes everywhere was key. If he wanted to, he could take over the world himself. He had plenty of people inserted in almost every government. But he used them instead to uncover secrets and information particularly regarding GJ. His undercover GJ agents would tip him off to some plot, and he would come out of hiding, sabotage it, and go underground again, driving GJ insane. While they were lost and confused, making asses of themselves trying to find him, he and Wade would go in and tamper with their mainframes or ridiculously huge bank accounts, leaving them reeling and unable to recover. They'd done it multiple times already, slowly tightening their death-grip on GJ's throat, choking the life out of it.

And he was going to plan a personal blow to Dr. Betty Director this time. This experiment was inhumane and downright evil, and she would understand what it was like to suffer.

And Number Twenty Three was going to help him.

Yes, he grinned evilly. This plan would expose GJ AND eliminate it... forever.

**-23-**

It had been weeks before Number Twenty Three was well enough to be evaluated. She was thankfully putting on weight. The downside to that was that he quickly realized the reason those miserable lab people kept her so weak; she was exceptionally strong and quick. Even though she wasn't fully recovered, she had still wrestled her way out of a blood test in a way that he wasn't even going to explain, because it sounded nuts.

He found her in his room, glaring balefully at the door. "Hey," he whispered. He could swear he heard her growl in response. He raised his hands, slowly, in a gesture of surrender. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Her huff of laughter was derisive and sarcastic. "That's what they all say. 'This won't hurt... you won't feel a thing.' They all lie."

"We are nothing like them," Ron said, slightly offended. "Everything that's being done here is being done to help you get well."

"I don't believe you."

"Well fine. But I really like my room, and I can't really leave you alone as long as you're here. Will you at least let me show you to where you're going to stay until you're better?"

Her glare lessened. "Maybe. What's in my room?"

He smirked. "A bed. A couch. A bathroom. A television. A closet. Things that are normal for places where people live. A kitchen. A table to eat at."

"No tray?"

"What was on the tray?"

"Nasty stuff," she whimpered. "I couldn't eat it."

"No nasty stuff, I promise. I'll teach you how to cook stuff that tastes better, okay? Or if not, there's the cafeteria on the other side of the building."

She straightened out of the corner and he consciously checked to see that his mouth was closed. She was wearing his shorts again, except, instead of an oversized tee, she was wearing a white tank top that was obviously given to her by another female.

Her hair was a wild mess, and her eyes, green as ever, watched him warily. She stepped toward him, her every movement cautious. He turned, slowly, letting her walk behind him and keeping his hands in plain view as he guided her to the elevator and pushed the 5 button.

She flinched.

"Just an elevator," he said soothingly. "We'll go down a floor, and I'll show you where you'll live."

The elevator dinged, and she followed him gratefully out of the small space. He arrived at a door, and handed her a key card.

She looked at it in confusion.

"It's a key. It will open the door."

"Yours doesn't have a key."

"Mine is different. There's a biometric scanner on the door knob. It recognizes you, and it opens when you turn it."

She frowned. "I like that better than the key."

He chuckled. "I'll see what I can do. Go ahead. Open it, look around."

She fumbled with the card for a moment before slipping it in and pushing the door open. There was a tiny living space, with couches and a TV. A breakfast bar separated the space from the kitchen. There was a table next to where the kitchen ended. Two steps led to a hall, and she cautiously made her way down it. She found a bathroom, and a bedroom with a large, comfortable bed and floor to ceiling windows. The room was painted in a deep ruby red, with accents that were not exactly white. The carpet was really soft and fluffy and the exact same shade of... not-white. The windows could be covered with deep red curtains. The room by itself was three times the size of her... cell.

"Do you like it?"

She nodded, looking at the bed longingly.

He chuckled. "I'll let you rest. Can I bring you dinner in a couple hours?"

She nodded again, thanking him with a shy smile.

"Next time they want to test something on you, you tell them to come get me if you don't feel safe, okay? I'll make sure they don't hurt you. But don't run off like that okay?"

"I'm sorry," she whispered, her cheeks flaming.

"I understand," he said quietly. "I'll be back with something for you to eat."

"Okay..."

He stepped forward, warning her with his eyes that he was going to be in her personal space. She stiffened when he wrapped her in a brief hug. When he was gone, she stared at the door for a long time.

**-23-**

"What's your name?" She asked while they ate. The food was delicious. She'd only recently been allowed to eat solid foods, and she'd been trying to eat something different every day. Today he brought her simple pasta and meatballs. For dessert, though, he brought her cheesecake. She didn't know how cheesecake was going to taste good, because she tasted cheese for the first time in her life yesterday, and it was salty and tangy, and definitely _not_ something you put in sweets.

He smiled at her. "I'm Ron. How about you, what's your name?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. They never called me a real name. Just my number. Number Twenty Three."

He shook his head. "Number Twenty Three... is not a real name."

She looked down at her plate sadly.

He eyed her speculatively. "We should _give_ you a real name."

She brightened. "Really?"

He chuckled at her hopefulness. "Yeah, I mean, we can't call you 'Number Twenty Three' forever."

She stared at her plate again. "I... found one of their books, once. She was... having a baby. And her book was full of names."

"Did you see one you like?"

She nodded shyly again. "Yeah. But I got in trouble for taking it. They told me I had to sit in the dark for the rest of the month."

That was dumb, he thought angrily to himself. "What name did you like?"

"She... was calling her baby Kimmie. I looked it up in the name book."

He smirked again. "You're too old for 'Kimmie'... how about just Kim?"

"Kim?" She repeated.

"Yup."

"I like it," she said shyly, gingerly sticking her fork into her slice of cheesecake.

"It's settled then. And it suits you. And I think... you've survived circumstances that no normal person could. And you're the smartest, strongest, most amazing person I've ever met."

"You barely know me..."

He shrugged, smiling as her cheeks turned bright red again. "I don't care. You need a name as unique as you are."

"Well?" she asked, impatiently.

"Kim Possible."

She set her fork down and looked at him. Kim Possible. It sounded like someone who could kick anyone's butt. Maybe she liked that. "Kim. Possible." it rolled off her tongue. She did like it. Hmm.

He smiled at her. "I know you like it," he said, and his eyes sparkled with mischief.

"I do," she confessed.

"Good, then it's settled. Your name is Kim Possible."

"My name," she echoed, eyes locked on his, "is Kim Possible."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2**_

* * *

She was getting better, he observed as the instructor face-planted again. It'd been four months since he named her, and she was starting to develop her own taste and style of things. There were therapists, academic tutors, and trainers for her twenty-four seven. He'd read all of their files, noting that some of them had very high IQs and some were exceptionally physically gifted. All of them had training three days a week and academic tutoring five days a week.

Kim was different. She wanted to train more, read more, learn more... she never felt challenged. Wade took on tutoring her himself after only a few weeks, and her thirst for more settled... slightly. She was the complete package that the geneticists were looking for: she was not just smart... she was brilliant. She was already at post-graduate level in various areas, including all the natural sciences, arts, and mathematics. She was beautiful. He caught himself staring at her far _far_ too often. And she was strong. He'd taken up sparring with her at least once a week. Week before last, she had him down within the first minute. After their work out, he asked her if she would teach him some things. So now he was being taught by her.

All in four months.

She smiled a lot on the rare occasion she wasn't doing or learning something or other. When she was, the look of concentration on her face was adorable.

He discovered one thing, though. She didn't like to lose. She'd played chess with Number Sixteen, renamed Ned Checker, two days ago, right before her training down in the dojo he'd had built in the basement. She lost the chess match, and when she reached the dojo, she all but put the instructor in a coma.

He thought it was time to bring in some... evil reinforcements.

"What do you want now?"

"Good to see you too," he'd smirked at the girl standing in front of his desk. He leaned back and propped his feet on his desk. "Now I need your help."

"Of course, you only ever call me when you need me," she said, her voice sultry.

He ignored her. "As you've probably heard by now, I recently acquired some GJ gems."

"I did hear. Something about genetics experiments?"

He just grinned. As if on cue, a soft knock on the door echoed in his spacious office. "Come in, Kim," he said gently.

The door opened, and she practically bounced in, her green eyes glowing. "Hi Ron," she said brightly. "I figured out that equation Wade's had me working for the past three days," she crowed triumphantly. "It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. He says it took him three weeks. Oh, sorry, Wade said you actually needed me for something."

"I do," he said pleasantly. "This is Shego. She's got more black belts than all the population of Beijing combined, and she's got freaky glowing hands. I figured you might like a real challenge."

Shego raised an eyebrow. "This is the genetic experiment?"

He glared at her. "Her name is Kim, and she's not an experiment anymore."

The redhead in question looked the other girl up and down. "Shego. About one-hundred twenty pounds, five feet seven inches tall... she doesn't look like much," she said thoughtfully. "I thought you said it would be a real challenge."

"Oh I'll show you challenge," growled the dark haired girl, launching herself at Kim.

"Oh I don't think so, you two. Take it to the dojo. I need my office." Ron simply leaned back in his desk, watching them. Oh yeah, they'd get along like fire and gasoline. This was going to be fun to watch.

**-23-**

"Stop."

"What?" he asked, confused.

She sat up, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and reaching for her shirt.

"You're leaving?"

"Yeah," she answered, her voice slightly irritated.

"Why?!"

"Well because you'd rather sleep with that redhead that might not even be fully human than sleep with me."

He glared at her. "She's fully human. You on the other hand, are half human, half _bitch_."

"And don't you forget it, Stoppable," she growled. "I'm not going to be your distraction."

He let out a humorless chuckle. "Oh aren't you?" He reached for his shorts. "What do you think you've been since I killed Sheldon?"

"You stupid piece of shit," she hissed, tears springing to her eyes. "You asshole, you don't deserve her. I hope she plays you like you've played me." she stomped toward the door, now fully dressed, and slammed it shut behind her.

He sighed. He never meant to get involved with Shego... she was just there when he was in a rut and had to blow off some steam. They sparred, and then they drank, and then they had sex. And then they did it again a couple months later...

They both made it clear that this was strictly casual, but he called her often in the months that followed the fall of WWEE. He'd slaughtered Sheldon Director. There was no way around it. He killed him coldly and ruthlessly, and then left his maimed corpse on Betty Director's doorstep. He figured she deserved to know what it was like to observe the horribly dead corpse of the only family you had left.

He'd gone into hiding after that, knowing that the Global Justice director would be out for blood. He found this place. In the buttcrack of the Pacific Ocean. Wade built a cloaking system which effectively wiped the rather large island off the face of the planet, and then he started building all that he had now. It was a beautiful island. It's mountains were high and imposing. It's beaches were like something out of those _Sandals _commercials. The HQ, which was where he lived and worked, was built quickly and efficiently, and the people that worked there now consisted mostly of people who had escaped GJ's clutches and needed somewhere to go.

Shego was one of those people. When she was a kid, she and her four brothers were in their tree-house when a meteor came and hit it, giving them each strange powers. Global Justice had hired them on to supposedly act as agents in fighting crime, but all along they had been monitoring them, doing studies on their powers, giving them increasingly insane missions. At the tender age of thirteen, Shego and her brothers were going up against entire militias and drug dealers and the like. One mission, out of the five of them, only one came home: Shego. When she tried to quit GJ, she was imprisoned and experimented on until she escaped, about two years after Ron himself escaped.

She was eighteen now, and her parents thought she was dead. She never bothered to correct them. Instead she ended up going to Ron for help, and he took a liking to her sarcastic attitude and fantastic body. That was where it was supposed to end.

But she started to fall for him, and he ended it with her. Except that he was so lonely... he ended up calling her back. And again... and again...

Now she was putting her foot down. She was done being the temporary cure for a very permanent problem. He was alone on this planet, and he'd become a cold-hearted bastard. Or at least, he was until _her_.

Number Twenty-Three. She stirred things in him he hadn't felt in a long time: compassion, friendship... protectiveness? And _love_.

Not the kind of love that made him want to throw himself at her feet and beg her to marry him. No, he wasn't there... yet. But he felt like the universe had dropped her in his lap as the solution to that permanent problem, and he was terrified of screwing things up with her. She was still scarred from her past in that miserable GJ lab.

Which was why he still walked on eggshells around her, even though she'd become very comfortable with him.

But he wanted her. God, he wanted her. He found himself thinking unholy things about her all the time. And then he'd internally kick himself because she was a victim of a horrible crime, not a piece of meat that he could call up when he was bored or lonely.

She was someone you were supposed to love. She was special.

And she was knocking on his door. "Ron?" She whispered. "Can I come in?"

He shuffled to the door tiredly, opening it and standing back.

She studied him carefully. "Are you okay?" she whispered.

"Yeah," he answered, his voice rough. "I'm... well I could be better. Are you alright? Did you need something?"

She shook her head. "No. I was just getting on the elevator and that girl Shego was leaving. She was muttering about you, and I was afraid she'd hurt you. She looked angry."

"Shego? Hurt me?" he scoffed. "I'm fine, Kim... thank you for coming to check on me."

"You're angry too. Did you fight with her?"

His sigh was sort of a chuckle. "Yeah... we fought."

"I'm sorry," she said sincerely, wrapping her friend in a hug. "I'll tell Wade to get someone to help you clean your office, okay?" she was already heading for the door.

"She wasn't in my office," Ron said flatly.

Kim stopped in her tracks, confused. "Where was she?"

Part of him was furious, part of him was mortified. And most of him was amused. She was totally clueless. He sort of liked it.

After a moment of the most adorable confused expression he'd ever seen, she shrugged, most likely sensing that he wasn't particularly fond of answering her question. "Whatever. I'm glad you're okay. I think... I'm going back to my place. I have studying to do."

He grabbed her hand. "You're always studying. Stay here, watch a movie with me."

She shook her head. "Movies are stupid. I always know what's going to happen next."

"I'll teach you how to make muffins then."

Her eyes brightened at that. She'd had a lemon poppy-seed muffin for breakfast this morning... and then pouted at Ron until he got her two more. She ate those two, and she looked utterly heartbroken when they were gone.

He taught her a lot about how to cook, and often ended up cooking with her for dinner instead of going to the cafeteria. He taught her two or three new recipes a week, taking the time to tweak them until she liked them, or scrapping them all together. She was starting to be very knowledgeable about food, flavors, textures, and their origins. He could tell she loved it. Her eyes always lit up when they were about to cook.

She followed him into his kitchen, crashing into him when he skidded to a halt after realizing that he needed ingredients.

He whirled around, his hands instinctively finding her waist to steady her. His body was suddenly flush against hers, their faces inches away.

She blushed to the roots of her hair. "So sorry," she mumbled.

He was too busy staring at her to acknowledge her apology. She blushed again, the shade of pink in her cheeks deepening to a bright red. He finally snapped out of it. "Sorry," he mumbled. "You okay?"

"Uh... yeah. I'm good." She disentangled herself from his arms and stepped back, staring at her feet.

His phone rang. "What?" he asked, irritated. His irritation cleared to be replaced with a look of determination. "Yep. I'm on it. Kay, Wade, thanks." he turned to her. "I need your help," he said with a crooked grin.

"With what?" she asked, her eyebrows furrowing.

_She's so cute,_ he thought. "Walk, with me, talk with me," he grinned, motioning her to follow him from his apartment.

They made it to his office, and he pointed her toward the large flat screen monitor mounted on the wall, where Wade was waiting. "Oh hey, Kim," he said pleasantly.

"Hi. What's up?"

"Um well, it looks like one of Ron's UC agents in GJ is about to get burned. We need to get him out of there."

"You have a plan?" Ron asked, motioning her to a seat before propping his feet up on his desk.

"Well... GJ has been after a painting in the Smithsonian Native American Museum in Washington, DC. I'm thinking we should stage a break in. We 'attempt to steal'... he fights, he 'dies'... the end."

Ron shrugged. "Sounds solid."

Kim, on the other hand, was mortified. "You're going to _kill_ someone?!"

"No," Ron chuckled. "We're going to pretend we did. He's one of us, and he's not safe anymore."

Kim blew out a shaky breath. "Okay, I guess. What do you need me to do?"

Ron's smirk became slightly evil. "You're going to come with me," he said. "We're going to the United States."

She thought for a moment. "I'm going to help you steal the painting?"

"Yes. You're hands down the best fighter in the building right now. And you've become handy with firearms."

She gulped. "Yeah... for target practice. I can't actually kill someone! What—"

"Relax. I'll mark your target, and you're going to shoot him with red paint. No one will die."

"And he's going to know about this?"

"He will be briefed tonight. He says they will attempt to get the object from the museum the day after tomorrow. That's when we'll strike."

Ron nodded. "Okay. Come on, we've only got one day to get you ready."

Kim swallowed hard again. She didn't think she could do this...

**-23-**

"I'm in position," she whispered into her wrist.

"Good," came the hissed reply. "Targets will be in sight in twenty seconds."

She put the weapon to her shoulder, wincing. This was going to leave a nasty bruise. She peered through the scope, waiting for the person that she would...

She needed to not think about that. Her job was just to pull the trigger—

Cold metal, on the back of her head. "Don't move," hissed a voice. "Put it down."

She slowly lowered her weapon, keeping her hands where he could see. He yanked her to her feet and spun her around. His eyes widened. "Number Twenty-three," he whispered. She drew a deep breath. They'd been over this. If anyone recognized her, they had to die. Closing her eyes, she exhaled, slowly. A smile graced her lips. "My name is Kim Possible," she said quietly. In a moment, his wrist was broken, and his gun was in her hand. Her eyes were still closed.

"Wait," he begged, gripping his wrist in an effort to stop the pain.

She gulped, raising the gun. _BANG!_ The man fell to the ground, dead.

"What was that?" Ron was hissing. "Are you okay?"

She exhaled, shakily. "He recognized me," she whimpered. "I had to do it, I'm sorry..."

"It's okay," he said. "Focus. Your target is marked."

"I can't..."

"Yes you can. He isn't really going to die, okay?"

She put the rifle to her shoulder again. A red laser appeared on a man's chest. She fired again.

**-23-**

It was probably the sexiest thing he'd ever seen in his life. He'd retrieved the painting and secured his 'dead' agent, and he made his way up to where she was. "Are you alright?" He'd said.

In an instant, blazing green eyes were on him, and there was an automatic rifle pointed at his heart. Holy shit. These were real rounds now...

He didn't know whether to be terrified or turned on. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears, and she was shaking so badly she looked like she was vibrating. He knew she wouldn't shoot once he snapped her out of it. Keeping his hands where she could see them, he stepped toward her.

"I'm not going back," she muttered incoherently. "I'm not going back, I won't let you take me back."

Confused, he stepped back again. "What are you talking about?"

"I know what you want," she growled.

"I want to take you home," he murmured. "I was going to teach you how to make muffins, remember?"

Her gaze was confused, and she shook her head as if trying to clear her thoughts. The rifle trembled.

"Kim?" he said quietly, venturing a step forward again. "Put that thing down. I'm not going to hurt you."

She leaped back, eyes blazing again. "That's what you all say," she hissed. "You all say you won't hurt me. You're a liar! I'm not going back."

He eyed her finger on the trigger. She was stronger and faster than him, and he would not be able to disarm her. Not to mention she was apparently suffering from some major PTSD. Which he was furious about, because all the psychiatrists cleared her.

Now he had to talk her down, or his chest was going to get blown up. Fucking... great.

"Kim, I'm not sending you back. We're going to make muffins. Remember?"

Her eyes were confused again. "Muffins?"

"Yeah. Like the one you had for breakfast day before yesterday."

She trembled again.

"Do you remember the day before yesterday?" He worked extra hard to keep his voice low and soothing.

She nodded. "I had breakfast with him," she mumbled, growing restless. "He's... my friend. He likes me, he teaches me things. Sometimes he looks at me funny. It makes me feel... Where is he, what did you do to him?!"

"Kim, I—"

"Tell. Me. Where. He. Is!" Her finger twitched on the trigger.

She was staring at him, eyes blank. Then, her gaze cleared. "Ron!" she gasped. "I'm so... I just..."

"Turn the safety on and put that thing down," he said quietly.

She did, letting the gun hit the ground with a loud clatter. Then she rushed him.

He held her close. "It's over, Kim," he murmured into her hair. "You did a great job. Let's get out of here before the cops show, okay?"

She nodded and followed him to the sleek black car that was waiting outside.

**-23-**

"How in the _fuck_ did you miss something like that?!"

"She seemed completely normal!" The doctor answered. "She went through all the training, even being assaulted in the dojo, and she never had any problem. We've been monitoring her for weeks!"

"Yeah well she had a complete breakdown on that mission," he growled. "She pointed a rifle at me point-fucking-blank, how do you explain that?!"

The doctor swallowed hard. "PTSD can can be triggered very suddenly. There have been cases of war veterans that don't experience symptoms for sometimes months or years. Then one day something happens... a memory, a car backfiring, a bad dream... and all of a sudden they are suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress."

Ron turned away from the frightened man. He did have a point, after all.

"Is she alright now?"

"Yes, she's talking with Dr. Freeman now."

"Good. Um... have Dr. Freeman let her know I want to see her. Send her up to my place, okay?"

"Yes, Mr. Stoppable."

He gave the shorter man a short nod and then headed up to his room. Once there, he set a pot of coffee to brew and put out a plate of sugar cookies. Those were her favorite.

_She has a sweet tooth the size of a European country,_ he complained internally, even as he grinned about it.

She knocked softly about five minutes after the coffee was ready. "Hi," she said. She looked exhausted.

He crossed the room in two strides, wrapping her in his arms. "Are you alright?"

She returned the hug, stunned. "Uh... y-yeah, I think... so. I can't breathe," she mumbled.

He released her, jumping back. "I'm so sorry. I was just... worried. You look too tired to cook today."

She nodded miserably.

He squeezed close again. "I've got you," he said into her hair. "I won't let them take you back... ever. I promise."

**-23-**

"They _killed_ six of my agents and got away _again?!_" Betty Director hissed at her top agent.

"Ma'am, I—"

"You _will_ find Ron Stoppable, Agent Du! You _will_ find him, and you will _kill_ him on the _spot! Do I make myself clear?!"_

"Yes, Ma'am. But I'm afraid there's been a complication. One of the surviving agents... he believes that the person who shot him was..."

"Was who?" she growled.

"Number Twenty-three."

**-23-**

"How's Sykes?"

"He's pissed. She shot him twice."

"It was supposed to kill him," Ron said reasonably. "Chest and head, standard procedure."

"He's got a mark on his face the size of Texas."

"He'd have a hole in his face the size of Texas if we hadn't gotten him out of GJ, you make sure he remembers that."

Wade just shook his head. "How's Kim?"

"Sleeping," he said softly, pointing to his chest. Wade zoomed out a little bit and saw that the red-haired girl was curled up against him, resting her head on his chest as she slept.

_This is going to be bad..._ Was the thought on Wade's mind as he received an coded encrypted message. This type of message was standard from the moles they had planted in GJ. When the message was opened and translated, he found that he was right. Ron wasn't exactly known for his fantastic reactions.

"Um... well I just got a message from one of our people that's still in GJ. Seems they're on to the fact that you've... _reposessed their experiments._"

"_What?! How?!_"

Her eyes popped open and she scrambled away from him, tripping and falling in her effort to get away from him. She crawled backwards, bumping into the wall.

He realized she'd somehow taken his gun from it's holster, and it was now aimed at his face. He internally kicked himself. Twice in a day? He was only twenty-one, he was too young to be getting old.

"Kim, put that thing down," he said, bored.

"_Fuck_ you," she hissed, drawing the hammer back.

He raised an eyebrow. "I left cookies on the counter, but I don't think you should be allowed to have them still. That's not a very nice thing to say."

Her expression cleared, then became horrified. "I'm so sorry."

He chuckled. "Put that thing down."

She disarmed it, handing it back to him cautiously. She hung her head. "I'm sorry... I understand if you need to punish me. I won't have any cookies. But... please don't hurt me."

He frowned. "Why would I hurt you?"

She shrugged, but when he stepped forward she shrank back, pressing herself to the wall. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "Please... I'm sorry."

"I won't hurt you," he murmured. "Kim? I won't take the cookies away, I was only kidding. I won't hurt you."

She trembled.

"Kim?" He took a step forward and she was suddenly furious.

"Don't come near me," she hissed.

Wade cursed. "Now you've done it. Dr. Freeman... it seems that Miss Possible is having an episode. She is in Stoppable's living room."

Moments later, Ron watched them subdue and tranquilize the girl with a heavy heart. "Leave her here," he said quietly.

"But we have to monitor her as she comes off the tranqui—"

"I _said_ leave her here. If I need you I will call."

Dr. Freeman nodded and left. He picked her up, cradling her close as he carried her to his room. She'd be recovering in his bed for the second time since she'd arrived.

He sat on the edge of the bed, watching her. Her breaths were deep and even, and face finally looked relaxed. "I'm so sorry," he mumbled after a while. "I really didn't mean to scare you... I'm sorry... I'm sorry that you've been through so much. They... starved you because of reactions like this, didn't they? They preferred to starve you to keep you from hurting them... you're so strong, and I didn't even notice the gun was gone from my holster until you pointed it at me. You were dangerous to them... and they made you suffer because of it." he sighed. "I'm so sorry. I'll... never hurt you. I'll never let them turn you into some weapon, I'll never let them... abuse you... ever again. I swear."

Silence reigned in the darkened room.

He sighed again. "Shego was here. In the same place you are now. In my _bed._ And we fought, and she left."

"Why was she in your bed?" came the mumbled response, causing him to jump about a foot in the air.

"Uh—um, well—"

"Well?"

"Um... maybe I should get you something to drink. How do you feel?"

"Okay, I think. Loopy."

"That's natural I guess," he said. "Here." He produced a cup of water, a cup of juice, and a plate of cookies. She downed them all.

"Better?"

"You remembered? I told you once a long time ago that I like sugar cookies the best."

"I remember everything you tell me," he murmured. "Can I hug you?"

"Okay, but don't squeeze me to oouufffff—" her breath left her lungs in a huff as he crushed her to his chest again.

**-23-**

She stumbled into her room in a daze. He was... he seemed so broken up about... and then, she was in his arms, and he smelled really nice, and she was warm and safe. Not like she always felt in the lab... cold and scared.

Could he really keep her safe? He seemed so angry earlier. It had frightened her out of her wits, literally. But as soon as he saw the... she cringed. As soon as he saw the _gun_, he immediately backpedaled, doing his best not to scare her anymore.

She shuddered. She woke up to his angry roar, and suddenly she was back in that awful white room, backed into a corner with three 'doctors' surrounding her. "We won't hurt you," they kept saying. "You have to come." Then they would grab her, mercilessly dragging her away, tying her down so they could take her blood, give her injections that made her vomit even though her stomach was empty... connect her to wires and cause painful shocks in her body to test something or other...

_Make it stop... please make it stop._

_They strapped her down. She thrashed her head back and forth as they stuck little wires on her forehead and made open her mouth. It was a wood stick, and she tried to spit it out. She read somewhere that they used to do this to people with schizophrenia. Now they were doing it to punish her._

_They held her still, and no matter how much she fought them, she couldn't stop them from approaching her with the needle._

_Cool liquid licked its way through her veins... then fire in her head. She lost control of her body and her conscious mind. The wooden stick splintered then snapped as her jaw clamped down without permission. Make it stop..._

_They tossed her back into her room, and she trembled. Her body still jerked compulsively, from both the cold and the awful misery they'd just put her through. Tears fell from her eyes as she trembled, stumbling to her bed as struggled for control of herself. _

_On the third day, they still hadn't brought her anything to eat or drink. She was weak, her head was pounding, and the lights were blinding._

_Make it stop..._

_He smelled very manly. He had yellow hair and fierce brown eyes, and his face was horrified. "Don't worry," he whispered into her hair. "It's over now. I'm going to make it stop." The pain went away instantly, and his arms were around her. She wasn't cold anymore. She was safe... he made it stop._

He made it stop. Her hands trembled and she stumbled back through the door and to the elevator. _He can make it stop,_ she told herself. _I need to stay with him._ She made her way down the hall blindly, practically crashing through his door.

He jumped. "Kim! Are you okay?"

"Make it stop," she begged in a whimper. "_Please..._"

"You need to go," he said cooly, and she swallowed hard. He was making her leave...?

"But—"

"Now."

That second voice wasn't hers. It belonged to another woman. Did she need him to make it stop too? Why would he turn her away?

Then she notice the girl was doing something to her shirt. Buttoning it? Why... oh.

Her face flamed, and without a thought, she turned and ran.

**-23-**

"Wait—"

She was gone. And she was quick, and she wasn't going to let him into her room if she got there... fuck.

He sighed as the chick from R&D left his place. He tried calling, but she didn't answer. He tried her door, but she didn't respond.

Where he found her was a surprise to him. She was in the dojo. Her face was still red, but her green eyes snapped with fury. Oh shit... she wasn't embarrassed... she was _pissed._

She attacked without warning when she saw him, launching herself at him and planting her foot in his gut. He flew back before skidding across the ground. She was over him in a second, hauling him to his feet. She was seething. He instinctively defended himself, blocking most of the blows to his face and torso, but as her fury grew, his ability to defend himself diminished.

He told himself he'd never hurt her, and he was going to keep his word if she put him in a coma. He would not counter-attack her. He'd let her knock his head off first.

After what seemed like a very painful eternity, she finally ran out of steam. He went to the vending machine across the hall and got two bottles of water, handing her one. She chugged it, and then turned to leave. She didn't acknowledge him at all.

She really was pissed.

"Kim—"

She glared at him, the searing intensity of her gaze cutting him off.

"Wait," he mumbled.

"I don't even know why I'm angry," she said with a humorless chuckle. "Who was that girl and why was she with you? You're... first Shego and now her? You hurt everyone around you!"

He didn't have an answer to that. She was right.

"You'll hurt me," she said quietly.

He shook his head immediately. "No. I won't hurt you."

She turned away again. "You will... and it will hurt more than anything they ever did to me. They kept me weak as long as I can remember... but you... _you_ can break me. I can't handle what you will do... not anymore. I should be more afraid of you than anyone."

He gulped.

"_You_ are exactly what I should run from. And I..._ can't,_" she ended in a whisper. Tears shook her voice.

He tried to go to her, but she stiffened, edging away from him. "Kim..."

"Good night, Ron," she said quietly.


	3. Chapter 3

**A bit of background on Ron and Kim. :) enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

He hadn't seen or spoken to her in weeks. She threw herself into her training, moving through massive amounts of research, reading, and reports having to do with her newest goal: she wanted a doctorate in physics.

When she wasn't there, she was in the dojo, or at the outdoor firing range where he found that she quickly over took all of his other field agents as a marks-person. He heard that in a simulated ambush featuring paint-ball guns and forest in the mountains in a three day survival trip, she'd made all his field agents look like idiots. She'd wiped out half of them in the first day, and the person running the simulation decided to switch up the situation on her: he had two members of her team turn out to be traitors, and had them follow her every move as discreetly as possible. She found them out in less than four hours, and eliminated them from the game. Those were the only two members of her team that she lost.

He laughed for a long time when he read that report. Number Twenty Three, or Red, or Kim Possible, was _not_ to be fucked with.

Wade had appeared on his screen, disgruntled, after she fixed a programming glitch he'd been fighting with for the past two days. He laughed even more. Was there anything this girl _couldn't_ do?

Yes. She couldn't forgive him. She was still angry with him and avoided him like the plague. She'd made friends with the girl from research actually. And a couple others. The field agents all equal parts loved her, hated her, and feared her. There were a couple other field agents that were females, that she got along with very well. She also went about giving the rest of the Experiments names. She stayed close to Monique, the darker-skinned pretty girl with the curly dark hair, and an older, slightly socially addled, brilliant blonde dude who took the name Josh.

The person she didn't get along with, which he already knew would happen, was her new trainer, Shego. A damage report had crossed his desk this morning, stating that there had been an all out fight in the dojo and that it would be closed for repairs for the next three weeks. This was a result of his favorite redhead and his ex-girlfriend trash talking during their sparring match. Some words were said, and, tempers flared, and the poor dojo was completely and utterly destroyed.

The two irate women were standing before him now, and he put his boss hat on. "The dojo is completely ruined, there were fires all over the place, and they're reporting that the actual structural integrity of this building may be compromised! This is not acceptable. I won't have you two risk the safety of everyone else that works here every time you get tweaked at each other. What is going on with you two, hm?"

They both rolled their eyes. "Like you don't know the answer to that," snarked the raven-haired girl.

Kim just glared at him, her emerald eyes piercing. Her fist was clenched so tight he could see the tendons flex in them. She put it on her hip, her expression utterly deadly.

Ron glowered back at them. "You two have personal problems... fine. But I'm not picking up the tab every time you two feel like destroying something. I _do_ have a business to run," he said dryly.

"Yeah well run it with someone else, I'm through," growled Shego. "You wanted me to train your new skank, I trained her. Or did you want me to teach her your favorite positions too—"

"_Excuse me,"_ seethed the infuriated redhead. "If anyone is his _skank_ around here, it's you, you uptight bitch."

"That is _enough!_ Both of you calm the fuck down. Now." Ron slammed his hand on his desk as he jumped out of his chair. He turned to Shego. "You wanna quit? Fine, good riddance! You knew from the start that you and I would never work, and that is because _you_ are just as self-interested as I am. You want to bring that shit into everything that gets done around here, you're going to bring it down around our heads, and we're all going to find ourselves on the wrong end of a GJ firing squad. Is that what you want? No? Didn't think so!" He glared at her.

"You," he growled at Kim, whose eyes widened a little bit. "I understand that you're mad at me... although I have no idea why, since what I do on my time is _my_ business. But I expect you to control yourself and your emotions if you want to keep training to be a field agent here. And let me remind you what will happen if you try to go anywhere else: GJ _will_ find you. And when they find you, they _will_ eliminate you."

"Is that a threat?"

"No, I'm stating the facts. If you can't stand me enough to work here anymore, you're free to leave, I won't stop you. I didn't _capture_ you, or enslave you, or anything else. You're free to go whenever the fuck you want. But I know that GJ has eyes out for you already. The second you leave this island you're as good as dead."

"So I'm expendable to you, huh?" she said quietly. Her voice was emotionless and cool, but he could hear the bewildered hurt in it. "Did you care at all? Everything you did for me... was it pretend?"

"That isn't what I said."

She looked away from him. "It doesn't matter," she whispered.

"Kim..."

"Don't," she said coldly. "I'm Number Twenty Three. That is all I ever was to you, and I don't want to be anything else! I won't be anything else."

There was a distinct crack in his chest when the door closed softly behind her.

Shego glared at him. "You _let_ her walk away! You idiot! God, I don't know how I ever put up with you."

"Leave it alone," he said blankly, still staring at the door.

"No I'm _not_ going to leave it alone! You hurt everyone that gets close to you. You like being alone, do you? Fucking around with your employees?" she watched him for a moment. "You did until you met her, right? Let me guess. The first night she stayed in your bed you thought that anyone else would look fucking wrong in it... and all that other shit you read in the romance novels. You wanna be with her."

"I said leave it," he growled.

"I was a decent fuck, right? You were going through some shit, and you needed to blow of some steam. And I was stupid enough to fall in love with you," she said angrily. "_Do not_ do to her what you've done to me, because as I live and breathe, I will kill you myself! I'll shove my fist down your throat and fry you from the inside out!" She growled. "I'd threaten to tear your heart out with my bare hands, but I'm not sure you have one of those. I'm going to go find your girlfriend... I'm sure she'd like to blow up some targets with your face on them down in the firing range." She turned toward the door and paused. "You're a cold, selfish asshole. I hope you're alone the rest of your miserable life." She picked up the damage report, letting her hand ignite. The file was immediately consumed in green flames. She blew the ashes at him. "And by the way, you want your dojo fixed, pay for it your damned self."

**-23-**

He'd been sitting in dazed silence at his desk when Wade suddenly appeared on his computer.

"Go, Wade," he said quietly.

"Just wanted your go ahead on some... _creative financing_ on GJ's dime again."

"Sure, how's it look?"

"They never rebuilt the lab that we blew up, I was hoping to dig in while they were shuffling funds to rebuild. But I was looking at the files we got from that lab, and it seems that they've invested about three billion dollars total in that project. That kind of bill is popping up in their labs from all over the world. My guy in financial says that the detailed spending reports are... similar to the ones in the lab files."

"So you think that there are more of those hellholes out there?!"

"At least ten. Triple security after the... _terrorist... _attack... on the last one."

He felt sick. "Dear God..."

"I'm seeing spending reports for possibly a new lab going up outside Seattle, Washington, probably to replace this one."

"How much are they putting into it?"

"Right now I'm looking at about one-hundred mil."

A low whistle escaped his teeth. "Do it."

"I'm also looking at Betty Director's paycheck. She gets paid a lot for someone that sits there at a fancy desk..."

Ron smirked. "Ohh do it."

Wade gave him an evil grin in response. "You've got it, boss."

**-23-**

"_WHAT?!"_

"One-hundred and fifty—"

"I fucking heard you, idiot! Where did that money come from?"

Agent Will Du put the file on her desk nervously.

She opened it and scanned it with a sigh. "They think they're cute, don't they? I was expecting payment today... I guess this is where the money went. So they took the money for the lab... how far back does that set us?"

"Ma'am... the board isn't willing to spend more money or effort on this until you find their moles and eliminate them. This makes a total of sixteen point seven _billion_ dollars that have been stolen from us. We can't take another hit like this."

She sighed. "You're right. We need a plan to flush out all of Stoppable's operatives—what?" she asked the agent standing in the doorway to her office.

"Ma'am, I just received word that there were six electronic funds transfers to various shell companies—"

"How much?" she asked tiredly.

"Together the six transactions were worth forty-six million dollars." He sighed. "Ma'am, they say that we're going to have to close two labs."

"Close two labs? Which ones?"

"The lab working on cybertronic research and... the human enhancement project."

**-23-**

"They call it _human enhancement_? That's fucking rich."

"I know. I shut down one of their cybertronic research labs too."

"Boo-yah. I like it man, you rock."

Wade studied him for a moment. "Ron, it's me. What's up your butt?"

"Nothing," he said with a sigh. "It's nothing. _She's_ nothing."

His friend smirked. "You really wanna believe that, don't you? Why?"

"Leave it be, Wade," he said tiredly.

"No way. Look... I know you and I have been through some shit... I miss my parents... I miss Middleton. I miss the old days. We're pretty much on our own now, and we've done well for ourselves, I think. Am I right?"

Ron nodded.

"So what keeps you from letting your guard down... at least a little?"

Ron was shaking his head before he was done. "You let your guard down, you get sloppy. You get sloppy, you make mistakes. You make mistakes, you get caught. If we get caught, we're dead. You, me, everyone in this building, even Kim. Especially Kim."

"So you think that letting her in a little will be your downfall. That's a bit of drama, don't you think?"

"No."

"Something tells me she won't let you get sloppy."

"How do you know?"

"Well you didn't ask me which shells I used for the money, which you always do. You didn't ask me what's going to happen to the experiments from the closed _human enhancement_ lab..."

"Oh God, are they gunna kill all those people?"

"Relax. I took care of it. Are you afraid of her being your downfall, or are you afraid of losing her?"

Ron's eyes widened. "What are you—"

"Ron... you're sort of an idiot, do you know that?"

"So I've heard," he muttered.

"Go grovel. Get her talking to you again."

"Why should I? She hates me. She wants to be a field operative, and she's damn good at it. But she can get caught or killed by GJ any time... you know they'll be looking for her. If they find her I won't have to waste my emotions on feeling like shit. She hates me, I don't have to get closer to her... it's better like this for everyone. If I let myself... GJ will destroy me when they kill her. And I can't..."

"Ron can I ask you something?"

He nodded.

"Are you sorry that you knew your parents?"

"What?! No! They are my parents! My family! I loved them."

"GJ destroyed your life then, too, didn't they?"

"Yes," he hissed. "And now I want to destroy GJ. And letting myself fall for Number Twenty Three—"

"You already fell for her, idiot. Don't make yourself suffer for your own stupidity. Enjoy it while it lasts; if it lasts forever, great! If they find her, we'll do our best to save her. We won't let her go that easily. She's the best we've got right now, and I think she can handle herself."

"But—"

"Besides, I think she should have a say in the situation too. What if _she_ fell for _you_? You're going to deny her a chance to experience something other than terror and being dominated and tortured by those freaks? If she dies tomorrow, her life will have consisted of being a human experiment and being killed on the job. Would you be satisfied with your life if you were in her shoes? Are are you going to ignore her feelings completely like the selfish bastard you seem to have turned into lately?"

"Hey now—"

"Wade, out." He was gone.

Ron pulled a clear bottle from the drawer of his desk and took several gulps of its contents. He was going to need some liquid courage for the next few hours...

**-23-**

"What do you want?" She asked gruffly.

"I... made you something."

She glared at the tray in his hands. "I don't want it."

He stopped her from slamming the door. "Please don't close the door on me..."

"I want _nothing_ to do with you," she hissed. "I don't want you to pretend to care about me."

"It wasn't pretend! It's not fake, I... you're the first person I've..." he sighed. He obviously didn't drink enough.

After what seemed like an eternity, she finally seemed to take pity on him and motioned him into her place. He set his tray of sugar cookies on the table and turned to her. "Look, I—"

"I was right," she muttered. "You can hurt me more than anyone from GJ or anything else. I should never have let myself..."

"Let yourself what?"

She glared at him. "Shut up! I don't want to hear you at all! You're here to bullshit your way into my life again. I don't want it. I don't want you to care for me the way you _cared for_ Shego."

"That isn't my intention at all," he said flatly. "You don't know shit about me and Shego, so don't."

"Well then why don't you explain it to me?"

"I don't have to explain anything to you," he hissed. "All you need to know is that if my intention with you were casual sex, I would have just said so."

She turned away from him. "I don't care what your intention with me is anymore."

"Don't you?" he asked, cautiously approaching her from behind. She stiffened as he let his hands rest on her upper arms. "All I want is to get to know you."

"You're going to get to know me if you don't get your hands _off_," she hissed.

He released her. "I'm sorry," he apologized sincerely. "I didn't want to invade your personal space."

She turned to glare at him, but then she deflated. "It's no use," she mumbled. "You're going to get what you want in the end. I'm over it," she said dully.

He chuckled. "Will you forgive me? Please? I want your friendship and your trust... that's all I want. The second I saw you, I know you were going to be very special to me. I just..." he pinched the bridge of his nose. "God, I hate this shit," he said with a self-depreciating chuckle.

"Hate what?"

"Talking about my feelings," he muttered, collapsing onto her couch and burying his face in his hands. "Ever since GJ..."

She sat down next to him. "Will you tell me what happened between you and Dr. Director that made you hate GJ so much?"

He sighed. "I... was fourteen. My dad was an actuary and my mom... I'd been involved in some shit... not like I did anything wrong, but I was there when stuff started happening... Banks were getting robbed... the Middleton Space Center was attacked... GJ thought that their evil nemesis WWEE, or the World Wide Evil Empire, was involved. Shit... I need more alcohol," he groused. "Where my dad worked was suddenly defrauded of millions of dollars... in since I was a witness in more than half of those things, they thought that we were working with WWEE. They imprisoned my parents and took me as some sort of hostage to get them to talk.

"My parents were innocent, and I told them that over and over. Betty Director... she insisted that my parents were involved. She insisted so much that it set alarm bells off in my head. I get it now," he said bitterly. "They didn't want me telling the local authorities what I saw because _GJ did it_. Do you hear me? Everything GJ did was to cover up the fact that the Director _ordered _all those hits. Who knows what the fuck for, because heaven knows they've all got more money than _God..._ they didn't need to rob banks or anything. Turns out that the space center was under GJ's thumb, doing some top secret experiments, and those local banks all housed some of their funding. I was there as a counselor in what was called the _Rocket Boosters_ program, when they destroyed the labs that the experiments were being done in. of course, I was there, just like I was at the BN when it got robbed, just like I was... you get the picture. They framed my parents and imprisoned all of us so that they could get rid of their dumb project.

"It was my dad's idea to try and escape. We had it all planned out but... GJ had planted an agent in the prison, posing as an inmate. He tipped off the guards. All hell broke lose, and I barely got away. My dad and mom... they weren't so lucky."

"I'm... sorry."

"After that... I decided that if Betty Director can be a cold-hearted murdering bitch, then I could be a cold-hearted bastard too. And I decided to do it on her dime too." He smirked. "Wade shuffled around some cash between the shell companies that we own to make this place legit. We _suddenly acquired_ almost two-hundred million dollars not too long ago," he said with false amazement. "Seems like the miracle of the oil overflow happens regularly in my accounts, thanks to Global Justice."

Kim didn't like seeing him with this expression on his face. He looked really cold, and his entire body language radiated repressed anger and desire for vengeance.

He noticed. "I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I probably just scared you a bit. I sort of wish you didn't have to see me like that, but it's a fact of life. I'm going to milk GJ for all it's worth, and then I'm going to crush it like the damn annoying roach it's been in my kitchen for the past seven years. I _want_ it to go down in flames, especially what they did to my family.. to Shego's family, too. That's her story to tell... but then I found out they were doing some sort of genetic research, and I was like this is going to be gold. I had no idea how awful the things they were doing were until...

"When I escaped GJ, I told myself I would never let anyone else in again. I told myself that I would never _care_. That I'd just use people and get rid of them when I was done."

"Do you... use... Wade?"

He shook his head immediately. "Wade... his family and ours were long-time friends. His mom and my dad went to college together or something like that. When GJ arrested us and froze our assets, Wade was the one that got himself way over his head, stuck his neck out for _us,_ to prove our innocence. He hacked every database and file he could think of, looking for evidence. GJ caught on to what he was doing... so when I ran, I took him with me. I trust Wade with my life."

"But you don't like to trust anyone else?"

He gave her a half-smile. "Not until you. I told myself I would never let anyone else in... I sort of shut off the part of me that _feels_ things... and seeing you all there in that god-awful lab... I felt something for the first time. And then you were there, and you were weak and in pain... and I felt that switch flip again. I just _knew_ that I couldn't leave you there, no matter what. You've—I've not cared for anyone the way I care about you... not in a very long time. For the first time in a long time, someone's opinion of me matters. It feels weird as fuck, let me tell you," he half-chuckled again. "But I really can't... I can't stand that you're angry at me. I can't stand that I hurt you... somehow. To be honest, I don't really pay attention to how my actions affect other people anymore. Something else I ceased to do until I met you. Now, I'm afraid of hurting you, of pushing you away... I sort of hate it. It all feels out of my control."

She sat in silence for a long time, processing everything he said.

He reached for her hand. "Please... _please_ believe me when I say that everything I taught you, everything we did together wasn't pretend, or out of pity, or anything else. Please believe me when I tell you it was real. I don't... you're the first real friend I've made in a long time."

She felt a lump rise in her throat, and she swallowed it down. She stared at her hand in his for a moment, and something strange happened to her. She _missed_ him, physically. She wanted to hug him so much she could feel the ghost of his arms around her, his hands pressing her close to him.

Without thinking, she launched herself at him, squeezing him hard. He returned the hug with a soft, relieved chuckle, and the ghost arms were replaced with his real arms which squeezed her back. He leaned back on the couch and pulled her with him, flipping on a movie. Reaching for a cookie, she snuggled into him.

She was happy things were back to normal... he was her friend and that was good. He'd been as honest as he could, even though she could tell that he'd had to work awfully hard at it, even with the ridiculous amount of liquor he'd imbibed. He kept her safe. Then why wasn't she satisfied? What was missing?

**-23-**

He was reading her file over again. Wade had explained a bunch of the stuff to him. The experiments were basically created by basic biology 101: take the yellow peas and cross them with the green... but instead of being humane and experimenting with plants like that Mend-a-whatever his name was did, they decided to do it with humans, isolating specific genetic codes in certain people, and creating other humans with those traits. Some had the smarts, some had strength, some beautiful people with certain features they wanted to replicate. The first few _thousand_ experiments were hit-or-miss. He gagged when he thought about how many humans GJ had created only to be executed because they 'were faulty and needed to be disposed of'...

Kim was the first to be the perfect super-human. She was born naturally intelligent... _extremely_ intelligent. And she was also beautiful, but he didn't let himself think about that too much. Also, because of the genes they had given her, she was already naturally predisposed to strength and something called _kinetic intelligence._ They'd created her with everything save the ability to fly and shoot lasers from her eyes, although the scathing looks he'd been receiving from her the past few weeks made him wonder about the lasers from the eyes thing...

While he had to admire that the science was sound, he still hated the cruelty and lack of humanity in the experimental process. His mind flashed to seeing her that first day in the lab, how much pain she seemed to be in. That was horrible. Science or not, this could not continue.

He saw that her birthday was coming up in about two weeks. He would make her another tray of cookies and maybe cupcakes too. She was turning nineteen.

Dear God... there were people in these files as old as forty-one. How long had they been experimenting with these people?!

He shook his head and found his place in the current report he was reading. Reaching for a button on his computer, he spoke without looking up. "Wade, can you send me Kim?"

"She's in the north explosives lab now I think." The north explosives lab dealt with how to disarm or disable nuclear and biological weapons amongst other, more advanced explosives.

She told Ron yesterday that she was bored with the explosives lab on the south end of the island... they'd given her the most complicated bombs known to man, trying every trick in the book to get her to fail, but after only a few weeks, the lab technicians waved the white flag, crowning her conqueror of all basic incendiary devices. To celebrate, Ron gave her a tee shirt that read, "I am a bomb technician; if you see me running, try to keep up." He was pretty sure she was wearing it today.

"Oh, okay. I wanna talk to her, as soon as she gets a moment. Send Dr. Freeman too... I think the questions I have for her might be a little bit difficult."

"What's the problem?"

"I'm reading that besides the genetic part of the experiment, they tested some other things on her too. I want to ask her if she knows what they are, if she remembers what exactly the experiment was... those kinds of things."

When she arrived she was smiling. He stood as she opened the door and wrapped him in a suffocating hug. He returned it with a matching grin, taking in the scent of her hair. "How was the lab?" he asked her, taking in her attire. She was wearing a black long sleeved fireproof shirt and a vest over it, with the logo on the left shoulder. Fire-proof suit, actually. Skin-tight, black... he cursed internally. There went those unholy thoughts again...

"...I had to go back to the south lab, which is why I made you wait so long... they had a couple noobs and they wanted me to do a couple of demonstrations."

"It's okay," he shrugged as she finished her explanation. "We need to talk, okay?"

She frowned. "Kim... how much do you remember about the experiments they did on you?"

"Just that they were generally painful," she said sourly, obviously not willing to talk about the subject.

Ron just squeezed her hand. "I'm sorry... I gotta ask you this stuff. I'm reading up on the files they had on you and I'm wondering if you'll recognize what these so-called projects are or what they do."

She glared down at his desk.

"Would you prefer to wait for Dr. Freeman?"

She nodded immediately.

"Okay. C'mere," he said, reaching for her. She went around the desk and willingly into his embrace. "I'm sorry."

"'s'okay," she mumbled.

"Can I ask you something?" When she nodded, he continued. "Why did these things only work on you, and not anyone else?"

"Because I'm special," she said dryly. "They tried some of that stuff on number forty-eight... they thought she'd turned out like me, but when they put the switch in—"

"What switch?" Ron interrupted anxiously, his voice suspicious.

She smirked. "I have a beautiful mind, you know. They wouldn't want it ending up in the wrong hands... like say, being taken by their arch enemy, Ron Stoppable. If they'd foreseen your attack, they would have activated a short-range radio signal that would have detonated a small explosive device in my skull, killing me instantly. Everyone has one."

"You have a _kill switch?!_"

"Yup."

"And you're okay with this?"

"Their kill switch is stupid. It only works within like fifteen feet of the remote. Even if they do find me, all I have to do is stay out of range. And even if they do manage to kill me, it's not like I'll notice. It doesn't really scare me."

Ron shook his head, partly in horror and partly in bewilderment. "Can we get it out?"

She shook her head. "No... I think... and I like the irony in this, I think it's attached to some sort of micro-chip. I heard one of them say that the idea behind the chip was to boost my intelligence."

"Do you know how it's called?"

She shook her head.

"Do you... remember when they put it in you?"

She shuddered and nodded.

Ron shook his head to clear it. "This is insane," he muttered. "Do you know for sure that it's attached to the micro-chip?"

"Positive. I heard them talking about it... they never mentioned its name though. Do you mind?" she motioned to the file in his hand and he handed it to her. She scanned it, absently reaching for a highlighter on his desk. She underlined several projects and experiments that made him cringe. _Molecular physio-enhancement system, Intelligence Enhancement Serem..._

"This stuff is stuff I read about but I don't remember," she said by way of explanation, underlining something called "The Mars Project" and shuddering.

"Okay... and they used all this stuff on you?"

She nodded, and she suddenly looked tired. "The Intelligence Enhancement Serem... it used to be temporary, and have side-effects. I don't remember them giving it to me, if it was some sort of sick injection, or if they put it in my food... I don't know. I just know that I woke up with all this space in my brain, like adding extra memory to your computer. They made me read all these books and do all these tests... and they were stupid easy tests and I'd get tired of doing them. The serem and the chip are part of the same project... its some sort of system they invented to help me store massive amounts of information. When I discovered that I could memorize entire lists literally hundreds of pages long, I kept that to myself. I didn't want them to use me for their crazy—"

"Wait so you can memorize everything you read?"

"Yup. Everything in this page is up here now," she said with a wink, tapping her temple with the highlighter.

"Tell me about the side-effects," Ron said quietly.

"Um... well for starters I remember it used to mess with the other tests they would do on me. I couldn't use their molecular thing and the intelligence serem at the same time. By the way, the molecular body enhancement system is here," she said, pointing to a spot on the left side of her back. "I don't know how it works. I just know that it encompasses a lot of stuff, from the strength to the healing."

"Healing?"

"Yeah. Watch." She reached across the desk, opening his top drawer and pulling out a box cutter.

"What are you doing?" he asked in alarm, his eyes widening as he tried to take the box cutter back.

She drew the tip of the blade across her hand, wincing at the sting.

"Kim what the... holy shit," he breathed as he watched her hand stop bleeding and seal itself over the course of about a minute.

She shrugged. "It will be a scar tomorrow, and disappear completely in a couple of days." She grinned. "I know, I'm kind of a freak."

"That's... I mean..." Ron sputtered incoherently for a moment before gathering his thoughts. "Wait, I have a question. Why didn't your super-healing work when you first got here?"

She shrugged again. "Like I said, I don't really know how it works. But, just by dissecting the title of it, it's an _enhancement _system. It needs things to enhance, then, right? You know I was too fucked up to even walk on my own those first few days. And I can imagine that without it, I probably would have taken even longer to recover."

Ron saw the sense in that. "Okay so it sort of ruined the ability to make you heal fast and all that other stuff, what else did it do?"

"Well I'd get massive headaches, not that they cared about me being in pain," she said sourly. "And it had one other flaw... it made other parts of my brain over-active too. I'd um... well, hallucinate, and sometimes get aggressive. And I remember once I thought they'd drugged me with some street drug because my heart was racing and I was seeing everything in colors. It was... pretty fucking weird."

"I can imagine," Ron said, biting back a chuckle. "And of course, they would punish you for your more aggressive hallucinations," Ron said, suddenly serious.

She nodded, staring at her hands.

"I'm so sorry, Kim."

"I'm okay now," she said, smiling up at him. "You saved me."


End file.
